Abstract/Description

The EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy
met with...

Notes

The EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy
met with ACP Trade Ministers on July 31st 2003 and agreed to work
with the ACP in Cancun to:
'ensure that the DDA [Doha Development Agenda]
maintains a fair and important level of preferences for industrial
and agricultural products for ACP countries and that trade opening
takes place in a gradual and flexible manner';
secure an 'urgent solution to the issue of
access to medicines for countries with no manufacturing capacity
in accordance with the Doha mandate';
'establish rules giving developing countries
special and differential treatment to help them better integrate
into the world trading system';
support accession to the WTO of least developed
countries, most of which are ACP countries.
The importance of trade-related assistance was
also emphasised.
Comment:
It remains to be seen whether these commitments will be translated
into joint ACP-EU action to secure a revision of WTO rules on free-trade-area
agreements. Revisions are needed in order to allow greater flexibility
in the degree of reciprocity which developing and least developed
countries must introduce in any free-trade-area arrangement with
developed economies and this remains a vitally important issue in
the ACP-EU EPA negotiations.